Savvy road warriors understand that they will have a more enjoyable business trip if they are equipped with all of the essentials. Before you hit the road, it is important that you have a variety of items necessary to deliver a more seamless business travel experience. If this is your first business trip, here are three things that you will need to get around.

Travel Credit Cards

Using a dedicated travel credit card is a good idea when looking to maximize your money and make it more convenient to track expenses. Having one card for all of your travel expenses will keep you more organized. Travel cards are also known for their extensive rewards systems that allow you to rack up savings with every trip. There are a variety of cards to choose from. Popular choices include branded airline-specific credit cards and any card in the Chase Sapphire family. Be sure to read all of the fine print before selecting a card.

Stylish Transportation

You also need to pay close attention to your transportation options. When traveling for business, you want to make sure that you present a professional appearance and demeanor. Remember that you are representing your company brand when you get behind the wheel, making it important that you travel in a vehicle that suits a professional. Premium cars have plenty of features that make them ideal for business and leisure travel. For example, a premium vehicle is more likely to have built-in navigational services which will help you to find your way around unfamiliar places.

Electronic Devices

When out on the road, you are going to want to remain connected and in control. Having a suite of electronic devices will ensure that you do not lose touch with anything in your business or personal life. The cornerstone of your devices should be a quality smartphone. Other items to consider adding to your list of essentials include a tablet to keep you entertained out on the road and a laptop so that you can do all of your work from wherever your business takes you. Be sure to download documents or entertainment prior to getting on an airplane in case you do not have access to the internet.

Being prepared with this list of essentials will help you to tackle the road with confidence and make the best possible impression. You will enjoy a more successful business trip if you are prepared for whatever might come your way.

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(BPT) - With over 30 million small businesses in the U.S., it's tough to stand out from the crowd. Successful small businesses turn first-time customers into repeat business, building momentum and growing sales.

How can you achieve this? Marketing. Finding effective, easy-to-execute marketing strategies can boost your business by helping you engage your customers while attracting new ones. Here are some proven ideas to help your business thrive:

Engage first-time customers

Show new shoppers that they matter. Send welcome emails and recommend products to complement what they bought. Offer special deals to keep them coming back.

Utilize positive customer reviews

Did you know over 60% of consumers read reviews before buying? Reviews can include ratings, testimonials, photos, videos and more.

Treat reviews as marketing gold, sharing them with customers and prospects to build trust and increase sales. You can generate and integrate them into your website, on social media and other marketing efforts.

Turn shopping carts into opportunities

Let’s face it, plenty of potential customers add items to their online shopping carts and never check out. While these “abandoned carts” seem challenging, they're an opportunity.

An effective way to convert abandoned carts into sales is by drawing on the power of customer reviews. Adii Pienaar, vice president of commerce product strategy for the email marketing platform CM Commerce, says small businesses can change their fortunes with this approach.

“Our most successful small business customers don’t just send a reminder email to shoppers about items left in their carts,” said Pienaar. “They take it a step further and include positive reviews and ratings about that product with the follow-up, knowing how much importance buyers place on others’ experiences. By featuring personalized product reviews for abandoned cart items, there can be a recovery rate of 5-10%.”

Spark interest with special offers

Entice new and returning business by offering discounts, encouraging shoppers to give your business a try.

Also, if you don’t have one already, create a loyalty program for frequent shoppers, or a referral special for those inviting friends to your website or social media.

Personalization matters

Shoppers don't want mass emails treating them like just another number. Small businesses that tailor emails based on each customer’s shopping experiences and interests are far more successful in driving sales.

Creating customized content may sound complex, but it all comes down to how you organize your customer list. For example, segment your customers by which products they’ve purchased, then use this information to inform them how to best use their products or remind them when it’s time to re-order.

Personalization really pays off when you incorporate dynamic content — information that changes based on a person’s interests — in promotional emails. Use a customer's previous purchases and shopping interests to generate ideas on products to complement items they already bought. For example, recommend a similar flavor of cupcakes to ones they ordered before.

Get started

These proven marketing approaches can springboard your business to success. But, how do you get started?

Marketing has greatly evolved, with many new, easy-to-use tools. You don’t need to be a marketing expert, technical whiz or creative designer to use them.

For example, CM Commerce is an email marketing platform designed for small ecommerce businesses. It can easily create professional email campaigns to enhance and grow your business.

To help small business owners, CM Commerce features pre-built email marketing recipes for everything from welcome emails and newsletters to abandoned cart reminders and more. Business owners can follow these guidelines and put their email marketing plans in place with a single click.

“I always recommend small business owners invest in email marketing,” said Pienaar. “It’s a cost-effective way to establish your brand and regularly reach your customers and prospects. Most importantly, email marketing has the potential for huge returns and can truly make your business stand out.”

For more tips and ideas to grow your business, visit The Marketing Resources Hub.

Being a salesperson has always been a challenging yet rewarding job, but the position is a lot different than it was in the past. Sales positions used to be simple. You had a product, and you found a buyer. Just like that, the commission checks were rolling in. However, in these modern times, sales can be more complex. Here are three ways that sales positions have evolved and how you can adapt your business to account for these changes.

Tech Dependent

With the explosion of technology, there are so many programs and devices designed to enhance the sales experience. In fact, it's rare to find a salesperson that isn't using some sort of technology, such as handheld credit card readers, laptops, cellphones, and more. In order to keep your sales team up to speed, your company should provide access to all of this technology, rather than assuming they will invest in it by themselves.

Perceptions of Salespeople Have Changed

As with any industry, some bad apples in the sales industry caused many negative stereotypes about salespeople. It's like a stain that seems to linger no matter how hard you try to clean it. You must protect your business from these bad apples. There are some attitude and personality traits you can test for. It would be a good practice to test all of your salespeople, so you don't end up with bad apples staining your company's reputation.

More Competition Than Ever Before

Technology keeps consumers connected with each other, but it also keeps businesses connected with consumers. Now advertisements can be tailored to buyers without a salesperson needing to be present. Often, this means that by the time a salesperson gets around to pitching to a potential new customer, this person has been bombarded left and right with competitors. Now salespeople must work harder than ever to gain a customer's loyalty. You can't stop your competitors from advertising, but you can make sure to advertise just as much to bridge that gap between your salespeople and consumers.

It's true that sales positions have evolved over a short amount of time, but your salespeople don't have to be left behind. The three tips above are easy to implement within your business and your sales team. This will help ensure that your business continues to be successful throughout the sales evolution.

Not sure how to transform your business to be more tech-savvy? We recommend reading this article next.

Whether someone is traveling for pleasure or work, they want to be comfortable in your hotel at the end of the day. Not all hotels are built similarly or function the same way. Some are better quality than others. The different features that a hotel provides are referred to as its amenities. These could encompass anything from free Wi-Fi to a hotel pool in which guests can swim whenever they want. Depending on what they’re looking for, amenities will often determine the hotel that people choose, so your hotel should at the very least provide the following basics:

Good WiFi and Cell Coverage

More and more hotels, cafes, and buildings are providing free Wi-Fi to their guests. Just because WiFi is available doesn’t mean it’s of good quality. There are a number of ways that you can improve the technology of your hotel. There are systems that reduce cellular dead zones so that customers can stay connected on your property. There’s nothing worse than a spotty connection that drops out all over the place.

Basic Kitchen Appliances

A small refrigerator can make a big difference in how comfortable a hotel room is. Guests aren’t going to be grocery shopping for the week, but it’s convenient to have somewhere they can store snacks or leftovers from dinner. A microwave allows guests to heat up their food. A lot of people don’t like to eat out the entire time that they are away from home. These small kitchen appliances can make a huge difference for guests.

Gym Facility

A lot of people like to work out on a daily basis to keep up with their fitness level and mental health. When away from home for work or vacation, a gym facility on-site is very beneficial to guests. You don’t need to have a ton of expensive equipment available, but a few treadmills and cable machines can help people get their workout in for the day.

A lot of a hotel’s success relies on word of mouth from previous guests. It is also helpful if people want to return to your facility the next time that they are in town. Having as many amenities for your guests as possible, particularly the technology-related ones, will help increase your positive reputation and bring more guests to stay at your hotel. If people don’t feel like they were comfortable or had enough conveniences available to them during their stay, this is the reputation you will form in the hospitality industry. So to give your hotel the best chance of success, consider including amenities like the ones listed above.

Companies that don't make employee safety a top priority may have a hard time attracting or keeping quality employees. They may also struggle to find customers who are willing to put up with their inability to take safety seriously. Let's take a look at what companies should know about minimizing the chances of a workplace accident.

Create a Culture of Safety

It is critical that everyone within your organization understands the importance ofminimizing accidents in the workplace. Everyone from the owner to the person who takes out the trash should look for hazards and try to mitigate them. Ideally, management will make themselves available to employees who want to offer suggestions or report hazards. Managers and ownership should also make sure that they take accident reports seriously and that they don't retaliate against those who report an accident. While employers are not required to hold an injured worker's job while he or she recovers, it can be a good idea to do so as it shows loyalty to a quality employee.

Who Makes the Rules?

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is one of the key federal workplace safety enforcement groups. Many businesses focus heavily on being OSHA compliant and failing to do so could result in heavy fines and other penalties. In some cases, companies could be forced to close until they have fixed any issues that OSHA inspectors find. States may have their own version of this agency, and these state agencies typically enforce rules that are similar to those set at the federal level.

Learn From Your Mistakes

Employers are encouraged tolearn from their mistakes as doing so can minimize the chances of an accident happening again in the future. For instance, if an employee slips on a wet floor, it may be a good idea to purchase shoes with specialized soles. It may also be a good idea to review policies related to machine guarding or any other relevant policy after an accident occurs. Ideally, your company will opt to improve those policies or offer employees more training to help them understand their responsibilities in a given situation.

An employer's top responsibility is to create a workplace that is as safe as possible. Even if OSHA or other regulatory agencies didn't exist, there are many benefits to creating a safe workplace. A key benefit is a happy workforce that is loyal to its employer and more productive overall.

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Three car companies instantly come to mind when you think about how the auto industry has changed in the 19th and 20th centuries. Read on to find out more about these historical innovations.

Ford

According to Autodesk, Ford revolutionized the way that cars were manufactured on assembly lines. When the Ford Motor Company was able to reduce the time that it took workers to build a car from over 13 hours to under 45 minutes, cars became affordable to almost everyone. In Ford's early years, the company also managed to cut the number of parts required to build a car to 45. Ford also was one of the first to use slides and trolleys so that parts were precisely where they needed to be for workers to use them efficiently. By breaking down the process of building a car into steps, Ford changed the way that cars were built everywhere.

Toyota

Toyota revolutionized the industry by coming up with Just in Time manufacturing, which is often called the Toyota Process. The principle behind Just in Time manufacturing is making only what is needed, in the amount that it is required and at the time that it is needed. Toyota, however, was not content to stop there. The company developed a system that purposefully always looks for ways to improve their process. They also implemented the Five Whys Process. The process starts by asking the question of why at least five times. The result is a process that avoids problems and can create solutions. By asking five why questions, mistakes in thinking are often eliminated. These processes have helped to fuel the company's innovation, as seen in its wide range of models. According to Santa Monica Motors, Toyota now has over 70 different models listed under its namesake brand.

Mercedes Benz

Mercedes Benz traces its company history back to the first practical automobile that was built by Karl Benz. More recently, however, it is credited with developing multi-skilled teams, according to Auto Design & Production. The advantage of this approach is that people with different areas of expertise get involved with the car’s design, production and evaluation. Therefore, Just in Time principles often reserved for assembly lines can be built into the process from day one. Application of the Mercedes Benz principle also allows more models to be constructed using the same parts.

These three car manufacturers have revolutionized the way that cars are manufactured. You can take their principles and apply them to your manufacturing facilities. If you are a shopper looking for a new car, then you can be thankful for these manufacturing principles as they allow you to have a new vehicle at a lower price.

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